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Ingeo Bioplastic helps sports venues lower cost and reduce waste and will be a featured solution at the upcoming Green Sports Alliance Summit in New York City

At the Green Sports Alliance Summit August 26-28, NatureWorks will discuss how the Pittsburgh Pirates, Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Wild and other major league teams used new collection practices and compostable food service items to divert organic waste from landfills to composting facilities and improve sustainability.

MINNETONKA, Minn., August 22, 2013 -- NatureWorks continues its collaboration with the Green Sports Alliance to support the August 26-28 Annual Green Sports Summit. At the gathering in New York City, the company will explain how a growing number of sports teams, including the Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Wild and Pittsburgh Pirates are using 21st century materials and changes in collection practices to lower the environmental footprint of their sports venues.

For example, the Moda Center, home of the Portland Trail Blazers, achieved an 87 percent landfill waste diversion rate in 2013 to date and has saved more than $567,000 in costs associated with waste disposal since 2008. The Xcel Energy Center, where the Minnesota Wild play, implemented a waste management program in 2009, and over 2 years, the facility was able to reduce trash by 65 percent and increase its annual recycling rate from 15 to 56 percent. And PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates, has increased its waste diversion rate from 28 percent in 2008 to 65 percent in 2012.

“The Green Sports Alliance is dedicated to sports venue environmental improvement through innovation, and we are proud that Ingeo™ bioplastic contributes to the success of the Alliance member’s efforts,” said Doug Kunneman, foodservice industry segment manager for NatureWorks.

Ingeo is the market-leading material among a new generation of plastics and fibers made from plants, not oil, with uses spanning multiple industries and categories, including food serviceware and food packaging, low-carbon-footprint carpet and flooring, blinds, wall covering, signage, clothing, health and personal care packaging and durable products.

While a host of Ingeo bioplastics and fibers, such as carpeting or translucent signage, can serve to lower a venue’s carbon footprint over the long term, one of the ways that a stadium can have a nearly immediate positive impact both on its community and its bottom line is to divert organic waste and food serviceware from landfills to municipal composting. Addressing the strong interest from sports industry leaders in achieving true zero waste facilities, NatureWorks personnel in attendance at the summit will showcase examples of those organizations that are moving towards “zero waste” as closely as is possible today.

At the summit, companies that convert Ingeo bioplastic into plates, trays, cups, and utensils will exhibit and answer attendee questions about their innovative products. These companies include StalkMarket, Eco-Products, and World Centric.
A sampling of current Ingeo products can be found online in NatureWorks’ Ingeo LookBook. For more information about NatureWorks and Ingeo, visit www.natureworksllc.com. Follow NatureWorks on Twitter (@natureworks) for the latest updates. The international Ingeo users’ forum Innovation Takes Root will be held February 17-19, 2014, in Orlando, Fla.

About NatureWorks
NatureWorks LLC is a company dedicated to meeting the world’s needs today without compromising the earth’s ability to meet the needs of tomorrow. NatureWorks LLC is the first company to offer a family of commercially available, low-carbon-footprint Ingeo™ lactides and biopolymers derived from 100 percent annually renewable resources with performance and economics that compete with oil-based intermediates, plastics, and fibers, and provide brand owners new cradle-to-cradle options after the use of their products. NatureWorks is jointly owned by Thailand’s largest chemical producer, PTT Global Chemical, and Cargill, an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial, and industrial products and services.

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